Hopefully this will be civil. Opinions are all welcome, insults are not.

This band helped widen my musical palette an awful lot. They allowed me to grow accustomed to synthesizers at a time when I was a pure rock, guitar, grunt pig. They opened up the world of progressive music to me allowing me to more easily move into bands like ELP, Yes, King Crimson and probably even the more extreme stuff I like ... Zappa, Beefheart, later day Tom Waits etc etc ...
I have always found music to be a journey of discovery and I discovered Genesis by simply buying two of their albums one day .... I knew of the band and had probably heard a couple of tracks, but I certainly didn't know enough to make an informed decision. I bought Nursery Cryme and And then there were three for one dollar at a second hand record place, probably around 1981.
The albums were unusual to me at the time as I was all about Kiss, Acdc, Status Quo and the rock bands in my world. The openers on both albums showed me clearly that I would like the band, but the albums were so different to me that I needed time to digest them.

Please note: there is no need for this to turn into a Peter vs Phil vs Steve thread .....

We will go from Genesis to Revelation all the way through to Calling All Stations. I am very new to that first album, so all input will be appreciated, especially to that album.....
So please join me if you like the band. If you like particular albums, please give us your input on those.

I will be starting off a little slow as I finish off a couple of other threads, so please bear with me as we get underway.

BTW - I did search and found no Genesis Album or song by song thread. So please let me know if this has been done before and I will desist and delete if it has.

The origins of Genesis date back to the late 1960s. It all began when two groups of school boys from England's prestigious Charterhouse school joined forces to form one of the most successful acts in music history.

This unlikely bunch would go on to sell in excess of one hundred million albums world-wide, sell out football stadiums across the globe, become one of the top grossing concert acts of the 1980s and 1990s, and launch the massively successful solo careers of several of its members. That year also saw the brief return of Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett for a one-off reunion concert in England. The now legendary concert was not officially recorded, but the now infamous and widely circulated audience recorded bootleg of the show is probably one of the most sought after unsanctioned recordings ever made from a Genesis concert.

It all began in 1967 when Charterhouse students Michael Rutherford and Anthony Phillips formed a band, known as The Anon, who performed mostly cover tunes by popular British acts like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles at small parties in their spare time.

It wasn't long before Phillips, a guitarist, and Rutherford, a bass player, formed a songwriters collective with two other Charterhouse school-mates, drummer/singer Peter Gabriel and keyboardist Tony Banks. Banks and Gabriel had just done a one-off gig as The Garden Wall and, while they were not a full-fledged band, the two shared Phillips and Rutherford's passion for music. Later, drummer Chris Stewart was added, and the initial line-up for the group was complete.

Perhaps surprisingly, the yet unnamed band did not have aspirations of touring the world and selling millions of records. The group's initial intention was to write music for other artists.

By late 1967, Chris Stewart had left the band due to his parents' unwillingness to allow him to drop out of Charterhouse like the rest of the band had done to pursue their musical careers. Stewart was quickly replaced by percussionist John Silver. It was during that year that Gabriel and Banks managed to attract the attention of Jonathan King, a young Charterhouse alumni, who had enjoyed some musical success of his own with the 1965 pop song "Everyone's Gone To The Moon" which peaked at #4 on the U.K. charts.

King took the fledgling group under his wing and, in the summer of 1967, offered the boys a publishing deal. By 1968, King helped secure a recording contract with Decca Records under the name From Genesis To Revelation, a moniker assigned by the former one-hit wonder himself.
The 1986/87 world tour in support of the Invisible Touch album was massive. The ten month tour took the band to 111 shows, 59 cities, 16 countries, and a total of more than three million fans.

King served as producer for the group's first album, From Genesis To Revelation, released in March 1969. Much to DECCA Records and the band's disappointment, like the two singles that proceeded the project's release, the self-titled debut failed to make a commercial impact. Just months later, in the summer of 1969, Silver quit the band to pursue other endeavors. Once again, the drummer's seat was left vacant. This time, the band filled the spot with John Mayhew.

King, who was disappointed in the lack luster response of the band's debut album, drifted from the group. At this point, From Genesis To Revelation had no contract with King as their producer or with Decca Records, so they continued playing small gigs and writing material for a potential follow-up album.

While on tour, the band found that they needed to get away from some of the softer acoustic qualities of their earlier material to capture their audiences. As Phillips recalled in a 2001 World of Genesis.com interview, "There wasn’t the amplification there is now for acoustic instruments, therefore, things had to be more electric. You couldn’t dominate an audience in a way that you would need to." As a result, the group's sound became louder and more aggressive. This musical adaptation would start lead the band to an edgier style of performing and songwriting.

After approximately a year of local touring, the group signed with Tony Stratton-Smith and his label, Charisma Records, in April 1970. By that time, the group had shortened their name to simply Genesis.

You may not know this but I adore Genesis. With Peter, without Peter. With Phil, without Phil. I like Gabriel and Collins individually. My cat is named after a song on a Genesis LP. With all these Genesis threads today a moderator might decide upon some merging!

I went to the school not far from PG's (I know he was at Charterhouse) and if I had been more sports-like ("but I never made the first team I just made the first team laugh" - Billy Bragg said that, not me) AND fifteen years younger of course, who knows, I might have faced PG at hockey or basketball!

Thank you so much @mark winstanley! You know I'll be participating and I simply can't wait. The fact that all of this wonderful Genesis content is happening in October is just perfect. I first fell in love with this band during the autumn and I very strongly associate them with this, my favorite season. Every autumn since 2013 (my first with the band) I have gone on huge Genesis binges. I was just compiling my playlist for the car this morning as I begin a deep dive through the whole catalog.

Just to start things off, here's my story briefly: I only knew a handful of Genesis songs while I was growing up, just from hearing them on the radio. These would include 'That's All' and 'Misunderstanding' and they were entirely post-1980 Genesis. I always liked the songs, and the solo Phil Collins songs I heard as well (the only solo PG song I ever heard on the radio my entire adolescence was 'In Your Eyes,' which I did love). I didn't investigate them, though. I was consuming and learning about music as much as I could from my teen years on and Genesis just weren't top of the list. I don't think I thought I would like them as much as I do, because I've never been a huge progressive rock fan.

I finally actually began to listen in earnest in autumn 2013 (I was 25). My parents gave me a bunch of their old records as a gift and I was playing through them one by one. My mom had a copy of A Trick of the Tail on vinyl. It was the only Genesis album in the bunch. I loved the album artwork, but didn't recognize any of the track titles. I gave the album a spin and it completely blew me away. It was instant love, and profound. Some artists just feel like 'yours' from the moment you first hear them, and that's how they felt to me. They were 'my' band. I always had the Stones, but they belonged to me and my dad. Genesis was something I discovered for myself, as neither of my parents were huge fans. After devouring Trick and listening to it several times, I downloaded The Platinum Collection on iTunes. It became my obsession. I was over the moon with the group. All that autumn, into Thanksgiving and a big move my husband and I did, I listened to nothing else. Then I began to collect all the albums and here I am in 2018--a massive fan who simply adores this band and everything they did. I'm so happy to have found others on the forum who love Genesis too!

I consider myself lucky for having started with those two particular albums: A Trick of the Tail and a career-spanning collection. Right from the beginning, I had no bias when it comes to Genesis. 'No Son of Mine' was Genesis. 'Mama' was Genesis. 'Los Endos' was Genesis. 'Supper's Ready' was Genesis. It was all great and all part of one long story and I have never really had preferences when it comes to eras. 1970-1980 was a real golden era for them, but I really am a fan of everything. Even the somewhat unusual first album and the somewhat unusual last album. I love Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins equally as frontmen, and my favorite band member is Tony Banks. I'm a bit of a Tony fangirl, so warnings for that. I'll stop there, but I am quite excited to begin the journey with you all.

Have you been reading my mind? (not recommended) as I was just on Wiki looking at the live albums because amazing but true I never have listened yet to a Genesis live album so was wondering which was best, Seconds Out, Three Sides Live etc...

Have you been reading my mind? (not recommended) as I was just on Wiki looking at the live albums because amazing but true I never have listened yet to a Genesis live album so was wondering which was best, Seconds Out, Three Sides Live etc...

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Genesis Live and Seconds Out are both excellent live albums. Seconds Out tends to be a firm favorite of Genesis fans and fans of live records in general. Really, really great. Some dislike the fact that Genesis Live does not contain a live version of 'Supper's Ready' and is only a single record, but what is on there is brilliant. 'Giant Hogweed' and 'The Knife' are both so, so good on that record. These first two live albums are essential for any fan of the band, I'd say!

Three Sides Live is good, though nothing mind-blowing in my opinion. Good. The Way We Walk sets from the '92 tour are alright. They sort of fit the 'document of the tour' type live album we get in the '90s and forward from legacy acts. The 2007 reunion live album is an easy skip...not that I don't wish I was a fan in 2007 so I could have seen a show!

I've always liked From Genesis To Revelation, which I first encountered on Genesis - Rock Roots . Best sounding CD version is IMO Genesis - From Genesis To Revelation . The album contains some of their most beautiful melodies; Am I Very Wrong?, In Hiding, Silent Sun. I don't mind the production, which it has been criticised for - I think it works pretty well.

You may not know this but I adore Genesis. With Peter, without Peter. With Phil, without Phil. I like Gabriel and Collins individually. My cat is named after a song on a Genesis LP. With all these Genesis threads today a moderator might decide upon some merging!

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Now you have me curious. Is your puss named Harlequin? Harold? Surely not Squonk?

I don't think merging this particular thread with any others would be a good idea. This is going to be album by album, probably in an orderly fashion, rather than just people chiming in with "XXX is my favourite Genesis album".

By the way, for those who simply can't get enough discussion about Genesis even with the threads on this forum, I recommend this podcast:

It's just a bunch of Genesis nerds who get together about once a month to discuss some topic. Usually it's a particular album, though they do not do them in anything like chronological order. They have also done episodes on some of the various solo albums by the members.

Seconds Out catches Genesis at their peak IMO. A wonderful live album that I return to again and again. The PG era songs seem to have more 'swing' to them and the double drumming adds a lot of power IMO. I just wish it was a triple rather than a double album set!

Genesis Live and Seconds Out are both excellent live albums. Seconds Out tends to be a firm favorite of Genesis fans and fans of live records in general. Really, really great. Some dislike the fact that Genesis Live does not contain a live version of 'Supper's Ready' and is only a single record, but what is on there is brilliant. 'Giant Hogweed' and 'The Knife' are both so, so good on that record. These first two live albums are essential for any fan of the band, I'd say!

Three Sides Live is good, though nothing mind-blowing in my opinion. Good. The Way We Walk sets from the '92 tour are alright. They sort of fit the 'document of the tour' type live album we get in the '90s and forward from legacy acts. The 2007 reunion live album is an easy skip...not that I don't wish I was a fan in 2007 so I could have seen a show!

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I concur with all of the above. And I do like Genesis Live (73) a lot as well. After all, its the only officially released live album with Gabriel at the helm. Though I find myself reaching for the old BBC bootlegs when I want to hear live Genesis of that era. But the performance on that album is really strong.

Hell, Genesis - Live is so much a staple in the Genesis library I almost think of it as "the record that comes after Foxtrot."

I thought this thread should start with their debut album and then work the way through, but it's already about Second's Out and a misunderstanding about the thread title - and upon that now my remark about this - internet still seems to be a hard thing after 20+ years of learning - good luck.

Thank you so much @mark winstanley! You know I'll be participating and I simply can't wait. The fact that all of this wonderful Genesis content is happening in October is just perfect. I first fell in love with this band during the autumn and I very strongly associate them with this, my favorite season. Every autumn since 2013 (my first with the band) I have gone on huge Genesis binges. I was just compiling my playlist for the car this morning as I begin a deep dive through the whole catalog.

Just to start things off, here's my story briefly: I only knew a handful of Genesis songs while I was growing up, just from hearing them on the radio. These would include 'That's All' and 'Misunderstanding' and they were entirely post-1980 Genesis. I always liked the songs, and the solo Phil Collins songs I heard as well (the only solo PG song I ever heard on the radio my entire adolescence was 'In Your Eyes,' which I did love). I didn't investigate them, though. I was consuming and learning about music as much as I could from my teen years on and Genesis just weren't top of the list. I don't think I thought I would like them as much as I do, because I've never been a huge progressive rock fan.

I finally actually began to listen in earnest in autumn 2013 (I was 25). My parents gave me a bunch of their old records as a gift and I was playing through them one by one. My mom had a copy of A Trick of the Tail on vinyl. It was the only Genesis album in the bunch. I loved the album artwork, but didn't recognize any of the track titles. I gave the album a spin and it completely blew me away. It was instant love, and profound. Some artists just feel like 'yours' from the moment you first hear them, and that's how they felt to me. They were 'my' band. I always had the Stones, but they belonged to me and my dad. Genesis was something I discovered for myself, as neither of my parents were huge fans. After devouring Trick and listening to it several times, I downloaded The Platinum Collection on iTunes. It became my obsession. I was over the moon with the group. All that autumn, into Thanksgiving and a big move my husband and I did, I listened to nothing else. Then I began to collect all the albums and here I am in 2018--a massive fan who simply adores this band and everything they did. I'm so happy to have found others on the forum who love Genesis too!

I consider myself lucky for having started with those two particular albums: A Trick of the Tail and a career-spanning collection. Right from the beginning, I had no bias when it comes to Genesis. 'No Son of Mine' was Genesis. 'Mama' was Genesis. 'Los Endos' was Genesis. 'Supper's Ready' was Genesis. It was all great and all part of one long story and I have never really had preferences when it comes to eras. 1970-1980 was a real golden era for them, but I really am a fan of everything. Even the somewhat unusual first album and the somewhat unusual last album. I love Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins equally as frontmen, and my favorite band member is Tony Banks. I'm a bit of a Tony fangirl, so warnings for that. I'll stop there, but I am quite excited to begin the journey with you all.

Will we be discussing the live albums as well?

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That would be similar to my experience, in terms of when I came to the band and how I related to them.
I have never been pro Peter or Phil, I like a ton of what the band did with both of them. I guess some of us late-comers had an advantage in that way, as we weren't tied up in one version or the other. I can imagine an early in the piece Trespass fan being knocked sideways by We can't dance, if they hadn't heard anything in between.
I find the transition to be smooth from one style to another, and the band's life depended on change. Depending who you talk to Prog died essentially in either 1975 or 1977 (not that that's actually true, because bands still work in that format now ... but anyhow that's what i constantly hear) and so they made a natural progression into their later style (in my opinion)
I was 12 or 13 in '81 and that's when the real breadth of music struck me, and over the years even more so. I listen to things now that I wouldn't have been able to tolerate then, but that's cool and one of the great things about music for me.
Looking forward to your input.

Have you been reading my mind? (not recommended) as I was just on Wiki looking at the live albums because amazing but true I never have listened yet to a Genesis live album so was wondering which was best, Seconds Out, Three Sides Live etc...

Click to expand...

If you're feeling flush with funds, this is a great way to dive in deep with the live stuff ... though i never understood why three sides didn't get a 5.1 treatment.Genesis - 1973 - 2007 Live

I thought this thread should start with their debut album and then work the way through, but it's already about Second's Out and a misunderstanding about the thread title - and upon that now my remark about this - internet still seems to be a hard thing after 20+ years of learning - good luck.

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I assumed this was all pre-game stuff. We're just getting nestled in and comfortable before we begin. Usually we start talking about our introduction to the artist and then go through record by record when the OP does an album summary.

Again, that's all assumption on my part. I don't want to speak for Mark.

I thought this thread should start with their debut album and then work the way through, but it's already about Second's Out and a misunderstanding about the thread title - and upon that now my remark about this - internet still seems to be a hard thing after 20+ years of learning - good luck.

Click to expand...

Folks are just introducing themselves.
A question was asked, and answered. No Biggie.
We are just introducing the topic and band.
Either later today or tomorrow We will hit the first album